Have calmed down a little bit...

After verging on....a week and a half to two weeks, I have been fairly stressed about my dissertation subject. Basically, what I began with was 'The relationship between Europe and Japan, why we are influenced by Eastern Culture.' Now this needs narrowing down a lot, so I began reading more into it..and thought about basing it around cities, perhaps urbanisation...then i came across craft. A friend suggested to me: How East Asian craft has affect that of the UK, using Japan as a case study. Still needs some fair narrowing...however I have begun delving into the world of craft, and the arts and crafts movement which clearly links with Japanese craft. (Mengei theory)

.......why am I so adamant on basing my dissertation on Japan? I am interested in Eastern Culture, particularly Japan because it seems like such an 'alien' country to me, I have been exposed to Japanese artwork, print and paintings since I was fairly young, it's been around my house, have come across works amongst artists I'm fond of...
From what I learnt last year it has a very low crime rate, an organised transport system (bullet train) a polite society, I just loved learning all these facts and some figures about a completely different culture from my own. So in turn thought I'd investigate into why Europe, or even just the UK, is inspired by an Eastern culture, and vice versa. Globalisation could factor into this a lot, but from what I've learnt so far it's the need we have to learn about another way of living, a cross cultural knowledge is sought after.
So...really I think I'll just have to keep reading to narrow it down :S I'm not sure if I'd like to write about craft just yet...transport is another option, could make it a service design type discussion..who knows just yet. The first proposal is coming up and I think I'm just going to have to do with what knowledge i have a the moment. I would be so much less stressed if i definitely knew what I was doing, but there you go! I hear a lot of other folks are in the same position but pretty much everyone I've spoken to seems to know what they're doing...
On the upside of things, the research project is going really well! Yay! A blog to follow that coming up :)

Ooooh boy....I'm going to have fun with this project..

Sooooo, this morning we got a new brief, Sandra took us through it explaining the Research Project. We have to research into a jeweller/designer which has been picked out for us according to our own styles/interests, which lead up to a 10 minute presentation of the designer's work. We also have to design and make a piece which uses either a technique, material, inspiration or concept etc that they use. The line between using their work as inspiration and plagiarising their work shouldn't be crossed.
I had a feeling I would maybe get a designer who uses plastics, is inspired by organic forms, pattern, or texture..I was almost right, and I do like her work!
Zoe Robertson, is a contemporary jeweller who is interested in unusual materials, plastics, rubber and currently flocking are used to create her designs.
Bold, colourful, tactile and industrial yet sensual are all keywords to describing her work...however..
I did quite a lot of research this afternoon and found 2 videos of her giving a lecture about her work at Birmingham Institute of art and design, where she teaches as a lecturer on the jewellery and silversmith course.
Her earlier work as she describes, was inspired by a mixture of her love of creating, and her social life.. The market she aimed to sell her jewellery at before she started teaching was to the Rubber and PVC Fetish market! This was a big part of her life when she was younger, and having researched into fetish clothing companies and knowing that particular area of style, she noticed that nobody was doing jewellery in this line of fashion! So this is where her career took off....

Her work is quirky, very tactile looking, and a lot of fun.

Well, I'd never have guessed it from more recent designs...


Oh and I will post some of my final samples for the colour project up here but I haven't shipped them back to my flat yet.

Spore Prints!

I've been looking at mushrooms quite a lot for my colour project..I love the organic forms, the colours, the textures of them (although I don't like eating them) Have done some spore prints of some mushrooms I gathered at the weekend, and quite a few of them turned out really well and are very detailed! I'm going to try and replicate a print on the laser cutter tomorrow. Not exactely very colourful but I can incorporate colour into them some other way. Not too sure of designs yet but I'll have to come up with some pretty soon...such a short project compared to our first one which was 5 weeks! Time is running away pretty quickly.

Some A.R.T. Society fun..

For the past couple of weeks I've gone along to the A.R.T. Society events, with encouragement from my friend Jen who happens to be the president of the society (ooooo!) and it's been a lot of fun!
At the beginning of the term I was a fundraiser for the D.A.R.E. Society...although this provided much involvement in a team, was enjoyable/for a VERY good cause, it also provided a lot of stress, which got to me because really (I suppose!) I should be putting my course first. I decided to stand down as a fundraiser which I did and do feel quite guilty/sad about, I really enjoyed doing it. However this doesn't mean I'm leaving D.A.R.E. entirely. I still attend events, go to meetings and want to help out when I can. I just don't want to be relied upon when I can't be completely reliable due to my course or whatever else appears in between.
Anyway, having said all this the A.R.T. Society has given me some stress relieving activities to enjoy once in a while, it's good to go to an event where I can just carve a vegetable (a pumpkin just to clarify) or decorate piles of cakes in amongst all the work I'm doing! Here are a few picturess..